Leo Walk was 7 years old when his aunt predicted his future: "You will become one of the greatest French dancers", she told him then.
The fortune-teller obviously has flair: at 28, the artist is on track to fulfill the prophecy.
After a three-year world tour with the dance troupe of Christine and the Queens from 2014 to 2017, the creation of his company La Marche bleue, and the show Première Ride played at
the
Châtelet in 2020, the dancer and choreographer will perform again in the illustrious theater for four performances in April with
Maison d'en face
(1), a piece born during confinement.
The young man then isolates himself with friends in a house in the countryside.
He is the only bachelor and watches the couples live.
"I started to write about what I saw, I also noted music, looks, vibrations that it evoked to me, a bit like an
emotional
moodboard ."
To discover
Exclusive Madame Figaro visits
:
register for Art Paris on April 1
In video,
En corps
, by Cédric Klapisch, the trailer
Centered on nine people locked in a house, the show is the fruit of these observations, these impulses, these furtive thoughts.
“By seeing us dance, I want the public to be able to project what they want and let their imagination run wild.
The only common thread is movement.”
A tour in France, Belgium and Switzerland will follow, as well as a book to tell the process of making a piece to novice artists who, like him, work in a small team and must deploy treasures of imagination, touch everything and be ready to move mountains to carry out their projects.
Seeing us dance, I want the public to be able to project what they want and let their imagination run wild.
Leo Walk
Perfectionist and relentless
Being programmed at the Théâtre du Châtelet before the age of 30 does not fall from the sky.
Léo Walk is a diligent worker, who devotes himself body and soul to his art: "Younger, as I have ADHD (
attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, editor's note
), I thought I was perched, lunar, incapable of concentrating.
But dancing channels my hyperactivity, and I turn out to be a perfectionist, relentless, even downright obsessive in my work.
It's not always easy for those around me because I don't leave anything to chance, I don't give up on anything.
I even have trouble sleeping since I started this job.
Passion animates me but I lose some feathers there and, since I work on this spectacle, my friends yell at me.
I am not available enough, including sometimes for my other projects.
I leave nothing to chance, I don't give up on anything.
I even have trouble sleeping since I've been doing this job
Leo Walk
Protean talent
Dance is indeed not the only role of this multidisciplinary artist that everyone is looking for.
Videographer, he won a Victoire de la Musique in 2019 for the video clip
Everything forget
d'Angèle, co-directed with Brice VDH, and notably signed a video with his troupe for
Maison d'en face.
Passionate about the history of fashion and designers, attentive to style, he also created his urban ready-to-wear brand, Walk in Paris, with his friend Gary Neveu.
Last year, he was also among the dancers of
En corps
, the film by Cédric Klapisch.
Actor, a possible new path?
“I was offered to shoot in a new chapter of the
Sexy Dance saga,
but the cinema interests me if the pitch is not limited to the “street dancer in love with a classical dancer”.
Dancing is also not an obligation to make me want to go.
Filming this discipline and telling it is complicated: few people succeed in it.
Filming the dance and telling it is complicated: few people manage to do it
Leo Walk
If there is however a reference for him on the subject, it is the documentary
Pina,
by Wim Wenders.
“My inspirations are quite underground, anchored in a niche, that of breakdance.
Pina Bausch is the only famous choreographer who, in her body language, has a poetry in which I find myself.
What moves me is not his technique but his delicacy.
A qualifier that also suits his own creations, refined, airy, colorful and minimalist.
As for rigor, he acquired it with Marion Motin, choreographer of the Christine and the Queens concerts.
It is also on this tour that the click occurs.
“I was not doing very well, and this experience not only kept me from going into a tailspin, but it also gave me some light on my future.
There was not a single date where I was not overcome by strong emotion.
I knew then that I wanted to dedicate my life to it.”
On video,
Pina
, Wim Wenders' documentary on choreographer Pina Baush
attitude dance
If he started breaking at the age of 7, at home, in Champigny-sur-Marne, near Paris, and chained the battles in adolescence (period in which he crosses paths with Marion Motin), Léo Walk n Didn't imagine, at the start, making a job out of his passion.
“It happened a bit by chance.
I was also not at all aware of the pharaonic investment that such a choice implied.
So much the better, because maybe I would have taken fright.
But I don't regret anything.
Today, I like to feel that, each year, I am building and realizing myself.
I come from a modest background, with no artistic ties, and I try to put all the chances on my side.
If I don't go for it now, when will I do it?"
Also, to keep up the pace and recharge the batteries, he tries to
escape each winter for a month in the sun, in Bali, in Jamaica, in Los Angeles.
Valves essential to break with the solicitations, the greyness and the constraints of Paris, where he has lived for about ten years.
“I even ended up appreciating the harshness of the city because, when I leave it, I only have to see a forest or hear a bird sing to travel and breathe fresh air.
My sensations are increased tenfold, reinforced by the contrast.”
hear a bird sing to travel and oxygenate me.
My sensations are increased tenfold, reinforced by the contrast.”
hear a bird sing to travel and oxygenate me.
My sensations are increased tenfold, reinforced by the contrast.”
Read alsoMarion Barbeau, the revelation of
En corps
: "When we dance, we are devoid of fear"
From the capital, Léo Walk nevertheless appreciates the cultural effervescence which, he says, allows him to cultivate his own artistic sensibility.
“I like the energy of Paris and the beauty of the people, their diversity, their curiosity.
From Château d'Eau to Belleville, via Saint-Germain-des-Prés, we come across a thousand different and very inspiring worlds.
The proof by the gesture, in his company, the time of a visit where streetwear, heritage and banter any bistrotière mix.
(1) "Maison d'en face", at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris, on
April 3, 6, 12 and 13, then on tour, and Salle Pleyel, in Paris, on November 24.